Big no for me. He’s a big quick lump and for a while that got him in the England team. Hes been poor for a few years, he’s 31 and will need a significant period of time to adjust to League. He has similar weaknesses to Atkins but he’s nowhere near the player.

Re salary he may be on less than you think. Saints would have got him cheap as he was back up at Sale. He may have negotiated a better deal when he hit England form but his form dipped again after that.

Either way he wlll be earning more than Atkins ever did. We should be looking for more than bang average Union centres with questionable rugby intelligence.

And then there's John Gallagher, Gary Pearce and Stuart Evans on the other side of the coin. Granted, there's more successes than failures in RU converts. However, could you imagine the money that a Martin Offiah would now make in RU - RL clubs can no longer tempt away any of the top talent in the other code. This makes Burrell more of a gamble, and at 31, I'm not very enthusiastic about signing him.

Rugby Union has improved so much since it went Professional. The game is much more physical than it was. There are some big handy boys running around now. Probably less chance of not being able to cope now.

No salary cap, but, for most clubs, not much brass, either. I'd argue that it was a bigger risk in financial terms, but in terms of 'will this bloke be able to play league' they looked at core skills and decided 'yes'.

If he's good enough for Steve price, then he is good enough for me. Surely worth a punt as someone who doesn't count on the cap in the first season. If it doesn't work out, we tried, he tried a d I'm sure he will get another club back in union.